Cobh SAC Inter-Pub Comp - The Results

The day was almost a complete carbon copy of last year's comp in terms of weather and fishing. On the weather front there had been a gale the previous day but winds were from the northern quadrant and it was hoped, with winds off the land, that this would flatten the seas a bit and so it transpired! The seas were virtually flat calm which allowed some of the boats to venture as far as the Ling Rocks. It actually turned out to be a beautiful summer's day with the sun coming out and many of the anglers, on return, sporting a bright red complexion!

On the fishing front those boats that ventured to the Ling Rocks fared a bit better, in general. Mind you the winner, Pat Condon, on-board his own boat, Osprey II, opted to stay in a bit closer and did quite well on the Smiths.

Alan Kennedy, skippering the Lagosta II, was one of those who opted for the Ling Rocks. He had a motley crew on-board that included Anthony Austin, Martin Perryman, Pat O'Shea, and Tina Kneeshaw. Competition here was going to be tight...and so it turned out to be. Fishing at times was hectic with Alan firstly fishing the northern peaks and later trying out the southern end. A great selection of reef fish came over the gunwhales with a good number of pollack to 7lbs. There were also a number of fine ling, ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, pouting, poor cod, etc.,... For the last hour Alan brought the crew to the mixed ground north of the Lings were the species count was ratcheted up. Haddock, red gurnard, grey gurnard, whiting came on-board aswell as a superb megrim for Martin Perryman. We all reckoned it was a specimen but Martin opted to return the fish. The only species that wasn't caught, which was unusual, was cod!

On the other boats similar species were being clocked up. However, on the Camden Mist angler Ray Meaney, fishing for Ryan's Bar, went one better. Ray managed an Angler fish of 8kg! Now that's unusual. Well done Ray!!!

It had been a long day's fishing for the 32 anglers as four boats set out at 10am and lines-up wasn't until 5pm. Mind you for those that ran into fish the day seemed to fly. All retired to Tradewinds Bar & Restaurant were there was a local band playing and some superb finger food put up by Sandra O'Shea. As the scores were being totted up, stories were swapped, a few beverages were sunk, and a bit of aftersun applied!

Finally, Danny Kane delivered the results. Tradewinds Team had won once more. The team included Danny himself, Pat Condon, Martin Kennedy, & Rob Porter. Second were Crosshaven SAC and third The Commodore Hotel. On the individual scores Pat Condon (Cobh SAC) won by a close margin of 7pts with 443pts in total. Pat O'Shea (Cobh SAC) was in second with 436pts and Martin Kennedy (Cobh SAC) was in third. Martin Perryman won the most species prize with 9 species. All in all, another great comp...roll on next year!!!